Tax Back

in Australia

Tax Back

Bah! The dreaded ‘T’ word. I am only going to touch on this briefly as Tax in Australia is constantly changing and I can’t keep up.

Backpackers seem to get more and more disadvantaged with new tax laws. With that said don’t let it stress you too much as Australia has some of the best wages in the world and this normally offsets any major tax losses.

It was introduced that from July 2016 Travellers to Australia that are travelling on the Working Holiday Visa would have the $18,000 tax-free income concession removed and would have to pay a massive 32.5% for every dollar that they made.

This has caused a massive uproar from travellers, tourism officials and employers of the travellers, especially the fruit and vegetable farms who rely on travellers to do the dirty farm work.

Point is; a lot of people including myself thought this backpacker tax was a completely silly idea!

But, I have some good news…

The federal government has finally listened. Today cabinet met and announced that the tax rate that would be enforced was a much more reasonable rate of 15% for every dollar earned from January 1st 2017 (normal tax rate applies for those earning more than $37,000AUD) – Travellers win!

Along with the age limit for the WHV going up to 35 years old and a $50 reduction in the Working Holiday Visa fee – travellers win for sure!

Anyway, About 10 years ago I decided to do all my Tax through an accountant and it was one of the best choices ever. It took a lot of stress away and just simplified things.